For his mix for the section «money» from the Norient exhibition Seismographic Sounds the German composer Johannes Kreidler transformed radically chopped sound samples into sonic goods that creep into your unconscious. Listen to it below.

Money rules the world. Corrupt governments and ruthless global companies keep getting richer at the expense of ordinary people. The gap between the poor and the rich grows day by day. Money arouses hope, and people around the world dream of material wealth. Like everyone else, musicians are faced with the same money problems and responsibilities: they need to pay rent, taxes, or insurance. They are also affected by the daily business of producing music: How much does a new computer cost? How can I pay for advertising my new track on social media? How can I use streaming services? The strategies are various: let’s move to a cheaper apartment; I’m going to download this new software illegally; I will become the ambassador of a big telecommunication company. At the same time, the barriers to those «solutions» are considerable: talent? luck? language! credit cards! corruption! The latter is discussed in the first part of this chapter: in Indonesia, employees of the state are giving a hard time to small, independent concert promoters; and in Nigeria, the corruption inspires Seun Kuti to write a powerful protest song.

This text was published first as an introduction to the chapter «Money» in the second Norient book Seismographic Sounds.